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Summary

Description

CHRISTIE BURIAL ENCLOSURE: probably 16th century. Session house of Old Scoonie Kirk converted to burial enclosure (roofless) after 1775. Large ashlar blocks and ashlar quoins. Keystoned segmental-headed openings with heavily dresses voussoirs to inside. Broad entrance arch to W, and unglazed window to S. Christie family memorials and headstones to inner elevations.

GRAVEYARD: 17th, 18th and 19th century headstones to W surrounding Christie burial enclosure, mainly of badly weathered local sandstone. Predominantly simple moulded apex style, with simple classical and obelisk 18th and 19th century monuments. Commemorative stones include fine 'coped stone' of 1641 carved with skulls flanking hourglass, narrow skeleton to raised central panel and Latin inscriptions to sloping sides; 1824 memorial to David Thomson 'Ship Master Dubby-side' with ship's anchor; 1836 stone with finr sailing ship to obverse, erected by James Gourlay Shipmaster, Leven in memory of his daughter Mary, and son Thomas Gourlay of Banbeath; and tablestone on moulded pedestals.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS AND GATES: extensive coped rubble boundary, terrace walls and low saddleback-coped walls with inset railings. Main entrance with quadrant walls and 3 square-section ashlar gatepiers each with base course, cavetto cornice, pyramidal-cope and large ball finial. Decorative ironwork gates to vehicular and pedestrian openings.

Statement of Special Interest

Sited to the centre of a raised burying ground known as 'Little God's Acre', the church of St Modwena, belonged to the priory of St Andrews and was dedicated by Bishop de Bernham in 1243, becoming Scoonie Kirk after the Reformation. By 1769 the building was declared unfit and in 1775 (after six years in temporary accommodation) the congregation of Old Scoonie Kirk transferred to a new building in Leven. The Christie burial enclosure, probably the former session house, is the only remaining evidence of that earlier church. The Scoonie Stone, an upright stone slab with incised cross to front and hunting scene below elephant symbol to rear, was found in the cemetery and passed to the Scottish Museum of Antiquities in 1866. The cemetery was extended in 1841, 1866, 1886, and again in 1905 at which time the lodge house was built.

References

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